Heartlost
by Hana Ikimoto
Summary: She was a heartbroken heartbreaker. Sakura's wait for the return of her heart, and the trail of broken hearts she accidentally left behind. Eventual SasuSaku


**AN: I'm… back? I'm a lot busier now, since, I mean, it's been over two years. I'll finish other unfinished stories…. At some point… Sorry! Hehe… I'm really just trying to start writing again at this point**

**Anyway, PM me if you remember me from before or just want to talk or shit**

**Disclaimer: Obviously, Naruto doesn't belong to me.**

* * *

Rock Lee is the first. Sakura doesn't mean to break Lee's heart – she doesn't even know what she's done. But Lee can only stare at his finally-defeated opponent being comforted by the girl he loves, and wonder what else he can do – or if there _is _anything else he can do.

Sakura is nice to him, later. They are friends, and Lee adores her still. The ostentatious declarations of love and adorations continue, and Sakura brushes them off with gentle patience and slight embarrassment. Lee doesn't seem like he will ever give up, and Sakura has learned to deal with it. She knows that Lee doesn't expect her to reciprocate – he only hopes for it, and Sakura knows she can live with that hope, given how much she values Lee's friendship.

She does not know that he doesn't really believe he'll be more – that the day he defeated Sasuke is the day he learned that he will never have Haruno Sakura's heart. Lee is hopeful, and hardworking, but he is not a fool, regardless of what some people may think. He knows that Sakura's heart will never consider him – he simply refuses to stop trying.

It might be for the best, though. Lee will never have his heart broken the way other boys will – he will never have to experience her affection and love, only to realize that she will never be able to love him as much as she loves Sasuke. No, Lee has her friendship, and his heartbreak only extends to what he inflicts on himself, and that is more than many other boys can say.

* * *

When Sakura, for a year straight, dates doctor after doctor after doctor from the hospital, Ino is the only person truly overjoyed. Because Ino believes that her friend deserves better than Uchiha Sasuke, who has only ever broken Sakura's heart. So Ino encourages Sakura to say yes every time someone asks her out, and Ino helps Sakura get ready, and Ino comforts her when it ends. She doesn't know Sakura nevereverever needs comforting because of the break up – Sakura needs comforting because she misses Sasuke.

Sakura's first kiss is a boy she barely knows, a med-nin that works in the hospital with her. Ino is ecstatic. Sakura, not so much. She leaves a note for the boy saying it's not going to work out, and never sees him again. There were rumors that he asked to be transferred to another village.

The other boys come in a near-constant stream. A date here, a date there, and it's over, every time. Reactions range from fury to misery to nonchalance. The worst, in Ino's and Sakura's opinions, for different reasons, are the times when he breaks up with her, shouting accusations and bitterness. These are the times when Sakura goes to Ino's apartment, and cries, and the only time when Ino doesn't know what to do, because how can she? Sakura will never tell her that they all say the same thing, that she loves Sasuke, that he's a traitor, that she's wasting her life. Ino doesn't know that regardless of who chooses to end things, Sakura is always the heartbreaker, and the boy is always the heartbroken. In fact, Sakura doesn't know that either.

The streak ends when a boy she is dating publicly humiliates her, screaming that she never cared for him, that she never loved him, that she is heartless and destined to be alone. Ino and Naruto appear at her sides almost instantly, and Naruto beats the boy so badly he can barely walk. No one will publicly humiliate Sakura in front of him, Naruto vows to himself. No one will hurt her.

And as the three of them walk away, the two blondes supporting a silently crying Sakura, none of them know this is all the result of a murmured "Sasuke-kun" as Sakura slept at her desk, exhausted, still desperately hoping for a reunited Team 7.

She ends the year with a vow to stop dating, leaving a broken heart behind her, and two broken legs and a broken arm as well.

* * *

One would think, with such clear evidence that _Haruno Sakura is not someone to date because she can never, ever love you back_, fewer people would bug her for dates, fewer people would hope she could love them.

This is not the case. Sakura, though, has learned to refuse any and all offers, especially from co-workers. She refuses any and all dates from people she is not already close to.

Of course, it was only a matter of time before one of the Rookie Nine would ask her out.

* * *

Kiba is the first, and Sakura is later thankful he is the last, of her friends from the Academy days to ask her on a date. She accepts, mostly because she is tired of loneliness and solitude, and overtime shifts on Valentine's Day. But she also accepts because she knows that there is a chance, however small, that Kiba can make her happy, and she thinks that he will not expect the same inevitability of commitment and love that so many other expected. He knows her better than that, she thinks.

At the beginning, things are lovely. Kiba is complimentary and flirty, adoring without stifling her. He pays attention to her, and is sweet to her, and Sakura has never been in a better relationship. It's one that fits well into their lives, too. Many of their friends are dating – Naruto and Hinata, Shikamaru and Ino, Neji and Tenten, etc. – so gatherings are less awkward, since their remaining friends are either dating people that are not part of their group, or are not people that will date anyone anytime soon (basically, Sai. Also Rock Lee, but he's too busy doting on his "Youthful Cherry Blossom" to care, even though she's taken). Things are wonderful, and Sakura begins to believe she could love Kiba, someday.

It doesn't last. They date for two whole years, and then they break up. Only Ino, Sakura, and Kiba know why, and only Sakura and Kiba know all the details. Kiba wants more – he loves Sakura, he says, and he wants her to love him back. She is honest with him – no one can fault her for that. She replies that she can't, she doesn't, not yet. She needs time, and she knows she has said that before, but it is the truth. Kiba doesn't see it that way. He is angry, and bitter – he claims that she won't be able to love him, that she is still "hung up on Uchiha, who will never come back. He isn't coming back! There's no point!"

Kiba is not trying to hurt Sakura – he loves her, and he is only frustrated that she still doesn't love him. But she leaves, and he asks her to go, and two broken hearts remain, two broken hearts due to three different people.

* * *

Sakura leaves soon after that for a six-month mission to Suna. Suna is a good place to forget about what happened with Kiba, and to spend time with friends, like Temari, Kankurou, and Gaara. And that is exactly what she does, while working at the hospital there.

Two months into her visit, Gaara asks her out. Sakura is hesitant, but Temari encourages her to accept it. She does, after a few days, making it clear that he shouldn't have particularly high expectations regarding the relationship.

They date for four months, and break up mostly due to Sakura's imminent return to Konoha. As she leaves, there is no bitterness, no awkwardness, and no lingering trace of their relationship. Once Sakura has left, Temari asks her brother why he seems so apathetic about their breakup. Gaara chuckles, and says something about being unable to have a heart that someone else already has. Temari is confused, but can at least understand that Gaara is not hurt, or heartbroken, or anything else that usually comes from dating Haruno Sakura. He is, in fact, happy.

Gaara, you see, is smarter than most boys. He knows that Sakura's heart does not lie in wait for Sasuke to return to Konoha. So many believe this, thinking that they can convince her that they deserve her heart instead. Gaara knows better. Sasuke took her heart when he left – no one can take it away from him, at least until he returns.

So Gaara is not heartbroken, but he does feel the tiniest twinge of disappointment as he reflects on the fact that he is not the one Sakura gave her heart to.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke does return to Konoha, having killed his brother and achieved the first of his goals.

The entirety of Konoha puts up with an angsty, irritable Sasuke, a perpetually heartbroken Sakura, and every male that dares to ask Sakura out landing in the hospital with third-degree burns for _two and half years_.

Ino is so sick of the awkward dancing around and Sasuke's manperiod that she seriously contemplates sticking the two in a locked room and keeping them there for as long as necessary.

Naruto feels the same way. Luckily for Sakura and Sasuke, Naruto has a different way of handling this.

_Naruto's_ solution is to beat the absolute living shit out of Sasuke, screaming over and over again that "You have to tell Sakura-chan how you feel, Teme!" until Sasuke finally relents.

Naruto and Ino immediately pounce, and next thing he knows, Sasuke is standing in front of the hospital with a bouquet of flowers in his hand and the beginnings of a blush. Ino and Naruto, ever devious and determined to tease their best friends, have a video camera hidden in a nearby bush.

Seven years after Sakura screams out her love for him, and Sasuke takes her heart with him to Sound, he finally returns it – and her feelings. The epic first kiss of Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura becomes something of a legend – in later years supported mostly by a certain Hokage's love of teasing his two best friends.

Haruno Sakura never breaks another heart again, knowingly or unknowingly. Uchiha Sasuke, on the other hand, is more than happy to break the bones of _any little shit_ who looks at his girlfriend the wrong way.


End file.
